Your music experience depends on the speakers you use. And when you are in a group, the tinny speakers on your phone just won’t cut it. The only reasonable and viable alternative is a portable speaker, preferably one that’s loud and has a long battery life.
The Xiaomi Square Box 2 is a Bluetooth speaker that ticks both of these boxes. With a battery that lasts more than 6 hours and a portable lightweight body, is this the best Bluetooth speaker? Nope, not even close, but considering it’s price, you will not regret it.
Body
The Square Box 2 has an aluminum body with the exception of the front and back, those are plastic. Although the speaker did not feel quite good in the hand, with sharp and uncomfortable edges, most users probably won’t even notice it anyway. It is a sturdy device nevertheless.
The top of the speaker has three buttons for input. The power button doubles as a call receiver, and with a built-in mic, you can pick calls-up without touching your phone. The volume buttons also double as a music navigator.
The back of the speaker has two ports, one a 3.5mm audio jack, and a micro USB for power. The front is filled with speaker grills and finally, the bottom has two rubber feet for vibration control. It’s a relatively minimal design compared to some flashy portable speakers out there.
Sound Quality
The sound quality is pretty decent, considering a price tag of $28, I didn’t hope for much. It was pretty loud for its size, although the bass on those two 2.5W speakers did disappoint me. This is definitely not one for music enthusiasts or serious listeners but for casual users, this will be more than enough. Moreover, even at high volumes, there is very less distortion. Other speakers at this price point did perform similarly, with some bass heavy and some really loud, this particular one is decently loud and lightweight.
Connectivity
Connectivity can be done through two ways, a 3.5mm headphone jack or Bluetooth 4.2. This speaker connects to your phone really fast, not Bluetooth 5.0 fast but it’s pretty fast. The range is also quite decent, you won’t have any problems unless you have a really big room.
Battery Life
The speaker has a 1200mAh battery that, according to the website delivers 10 hours of continuous playback at 40% volume. I usually got more than 6 hours of music playback, video watching and game plays at mixed volumes. I personally didn’t find any problems with the battery backup on this. And when you do run out of battery, you can fully charge it within 3 hours.
Conclusion
All in all, this is a good speaker for casual users. But in any case you have more budget than the cost of this speaker, I recommend you go for some other speaker like the audio cube, which won’t be as portable but will deliver immensely better sound quality. You can also buy one from Xiaomi itself, the Mi Bluetooth Speaker, which costs around 2k more but the improvement in sound quality is definitely worth it.
If you are looking for a cheap, portable, long lasting and loud Bluetooth speaker, this one is for you. You can buy the Square Box 2 from banggood.com. If you want one, you can buy it here. They do ship to Nepal at a really low shipping cost and are also pretty reliable.
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